Blyss's Movie Review for:

Main Cast of Characters:

Andrew Divoff...........The Djinn/Nathaniel Demerest

Tammy Lauren..........Alex Amberson

Robert Englund..........Raymond Beaumont

Tony Crane.........Josh Aickman

Wendy Benson......Shannon Amberson

Jenny O'Hara...............Wendy Derleth

Chris Lemmon...............Nick Merritt

Kane Hodder...............Merritt's Guard

Tony Todd...............Johnny Valentine

Ricco Ross...............Lit. Nathanson

George 'Buck' Flower...............Homeless Man

Gretchen Palmer..............Ariella

Ted Raimi...............Ed Finney

Angus Scrimm...............Narrator

Reggie Banister...............Pharmacist

Tom Kendall...............Etchison

Verne Troyer...............Creature Stage #1

1997; Rated: R. Genre: Horror; 90 minutes

Be Careful What You Wish For...

The movie begins in ancient times and surrounds the story of the Djinn that will be told throughout the rest of the movies. A king's sorceror makes a fire opal so that he can trap the Djinn with special words after the king is offered three wishes and is about to release the race of the Djinn into the world. He banishes the Djinn. The movie then jumps to present day where collector Raymond Beaumont and his assistant Ed Finn are bringing in a rare find, a statue of Ahura Mazda. An accident kills Finn and breaks the statue enough to where another construction worker finds the opal and sells it to a pawn shop. The pawn shop owner then drops the piece off at an appraisal company. That is how it falls into the hands of Alex Amberson, who awakens the Djinn from his centuries old sleep. He is released and he begins to kill everyone closest to her when she refuses to make her wishes. But in the meantime, the Djinn collects his souls awaiting Alex's next move. Will she doom the earth to the djinn or be able to resist his temptation?

This movie gives us a different version of what we usually imagine a genie to be like. People wish but he puts his own twists on the wishes much like the devil in Bedazzled the modern version. There are lots of great horror scenes in this film with examples of the previous statement. For example, when the Djinn finds the human face he wants in the morgue and blinds the boy who sees him when he says he wishes he did not see it. Another example of this is when the Djinn goes to buy a suit and encounters a beautiful girl and she wishes to be beautiful forever and he makes her into a mannequin.

There is only one time the Djinn gave someone something they actually wanted and that was when the bum on the street made a wish against the grocery store owner. The wish came true and the owner died a horrible death in front of everyone in the grocery store but afterwards, the bum realizes that he really did not wish that to happen to him at all. But by then, it is too late because the Djinn already has his soul.

There is one thing I do not understand in this movie. The construction worker that found the stone. When he touched it, why wasn't he the one who awakened the Djinn? Isn't that how it worked in all of the other movies?That was never really touched upon and I think it should have been.

The horror scenes were excellent but I think the story needed a little more work to fill in the potholes. But this is definitely a horror movie worth watching again and again by my standards if you love gore and horror.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate this movie an 8

Blyss